Monday, November 14, 2011

Over the Moon!

I'm fairly certain that I am not the only teacher on the block "secretly" counting down until Thanksgiving break. Right? Anyway, until that time arrives I'll do my best to plug in some Thanksgiving cheer in my classroom!

While browsing blogland, I found an idea to "Gobble Up Similes and Metaphors", but similes and metaphors weren't on our menu, so I racked my brain to think of a way to gobble SOMETHING in 5th grade. Then, I remembered that we could always use a little refresher with vocabulary. Plus, we were working hard on using context clues to identify the meaning of unknown words. So, one day we gobbled up great vocabulary!

Pardon my poor photographs, we'll blame it on the fact that I've dropped my phone several times and it's not in the prime condition it once was.

Gobble! Gobble!

Each student received a plate and was instructed to pick two vocabulary words from any content area. Then, they had to use the word in a sentence on their plate. We went over proper sentences that would help our readers figure out the meaning of our vocabulary words.

For example: "I can survive." was not an acceptable sentence!

Yum! I'm stuffed.

At the end of September, I posted "Power of the Pod" (click here to refresh your memory) where I shared an idea to name your pods after content you want your kiddos to memorize. Sounds sneaky right?

Today was the grand debut of the moon phases in room 52! I have five pods in my room and I have 5 moon phases represented to give the students a visual when memorizing the oh-so-wonderful phases.

Full Moon in the HOUSE!

I bet you didn't know the surface of the moon was made from construction paper, did you? See! You can learn something new everyday.

Watch our for Werewolves

Needless to say, today was confusing. I called the "Cumulus" group to line up then realized they were now the "Waxing Gibbous" group. Yikes! I should have studied a little more.

Ready.. Set.. Memorize!

This morning, I asked my students, "do you notice anything different?" This is one of my favorite games to play. Simply because they not only notice what I want them to find, but they also sometimes mention things I've misplaced in the room or things I didn't mean to change. Which helps me out tremendously! They always keep me on my toes.

For example, this morning the "game" (I'm noticing I use that term very loosely nowadays, there was no actual gaming occurring in my room) went like this..